Because He Lives...

Revelation 1:18 "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the keys of hell and of death.

Salvation is of God and of His Christ." Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. No matter how good or noble a man or woman may believe he or she is, that person can no more save themselves than you could have created themselves.

 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever live and believeth in me shall never die. Before a you can experience the event of the resurrection unto life, you must experience the person who is the resurrection. How can you be apart of something you know nothing about, how can you believe in Him whom you haven't heard?  Without conviction there can be no conversion. You can't experience an resurrected life until you first realize you were dead in sin. As we partake in His death, we will also walk in the newness of life. But to walk new, the old must die, and for the old to die, we must realize there was an old. We are crucified with Christ, and the life which we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.

All things are of God. He is the beginning, He is the process, and he is the end. He is our beginning, he is our path, and he is our life. We must really come to the knowledge of Christ and Him crucified to  become better Christians, obedient servants,  convincing witnesses, and a more accurate reflection of Christ. Let us take the time and get caught up in the thought of being in Jesus' powerful presence. This is our resurrected Lord, and because He lives..

Ready!

1 Thessalonians 5:8 "But Let us,who are of the day,be sober,putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet the hope of Salvation".



None of us know when this will occur, but Jesus is coming back.Jesus Himself said," No one knows except the Father". Like a thief coming in the night or a woman who goes into labor,we have no idea when these events will occur.So what shall we do in the meantime? 

Paul instructed the Thessalonians to arm themselves with three virtues:faith and love as a breastplate, followed by the hope of salvation as a helmet. A Roman solder's breastplate protected his vital organs from neck to waist.In spiritual warfare,it protects the heart from Satan's attacks as the helmet of salvation protects the mind,reminding us that we are saved,thus children of the light.

The idea of faith ,hope, and love being armor may sound strange to us.Armor is a military image and faith ,hope, and love are not exactly military motto. See these three virtues protect us from the root of most of our sin:selfishness.In selfishness,we think about what we want and how we can get more of what we want and control situations. But to welcome faith ,hope, and love in our lives(with the help of the Holy Spirit) is to move away from selfish craving,clutching,and fussing over things.Instead of trying to control situations, we choose to trust God, thus having faith he will work it out.Instead of being cynical about ourselves and our life, we choose to pray in times of trials and tribulations, holding on to the hope that lies within God and his word.Instead of putting ourselves first, we choose to do what is best for another,like Christ when His love for us put our needs above His own.

Let us live in the faith that Jesus has all power, the hope of our salvation and having love one for another the way Christ loved us.

I Am

Revelations 1:8"I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,saith the Lord,which is,and which was,and which is to come,The Almighty".

Jesus is amazing in His power and in His Love.He exercised both perfectly,never flinching and never fighting.He stood His ground,doing everything His Father indicated,but He never reacted in self-defense when His enemies taunted Him.Jesus' authority and humility were perfectly attuned to the Father's heart.It is beautiful and breath-taking when we stop to consider it.What is sobering,in light of this, is that we are called to be like Jesus.We have authority in Him, and yet we are mandated to walk in humility.It's a call we must take seriously and one we must pursue with care.

His mighty works "what manner of man is this,that even the winds and the sea obey him!" The elements, demons, disease,and even death were subject to the Lordship of Christ.Death had no dominion over Him, who could kill God? Jesus had to surrender to death and give up everything before he could die. He"became obedient[or submissive] unto death".The world perceived the cross as a moment of weakness when it was actually a temporary surrender of power,without which it would have been impossible for Him to die.

Jesus had all power, but He chose to exercise it in submission to His Father, in humility and Love. Abuse could not provoke Him to abuse His power; abandonment could not compel Him to abandon His humility.Saint it was His love for us and His obedience to the will of the Father that allow Jesus to lay down His power over death, and in humility, let it take Him temporary captive.He walked in both  power and humility with utter integrity, and looked to His Father to show Him how. We must do no less.Saints let us walk in his power to over come sin and in humility to lead a lost world to the salvation of the Lord.

Created For Good Works

Ephesians 2:10 " For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. "

We who profess to be born again. Those who my the confession of their own faith claim to be born of the spirit of God, are thus claiming to be Christ like. These are not words to be just thrown around lightly. We must remember the world is looking, there are others who are reading the word of God in the life that you are living. We who profess Christ are ambassadors to Christ.

Now this I snot to say we are to live a life perfect and sin free, but our short comings should be the acceptation and not the rule. If we believe that Christ rose with all power there should be some evidence of this in the life that others see us living. People should see love for others in our life. Ours should be a life of prayer which offers hope to those lost in darkness. Just as many of us resemble our earthly parents, there should also be some resemblance to our heavenly Father seen in us.

The text says we are  His workmanship; The work of God, the creator and maker of all things. We have been created in Christ, in Him who there is no sin we have now been created in him unto good works. We are to be the example which God ordained , and thus we should walk or live in the profession of our faith.  Jesus rose with all power let us live like we believe this truth.

Answer Your Call

John 21:22 " Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me"
There are times on this christian journey when we will run into distraction which prevent us from following Jesus. These distractions often come in the form of watching someone else walk with the Lord. We often get so caught up in what is going on in other Christians life, that we fail to do that which Jesus has instructed us to do. Now I'm not saying don't be concerned about those who have fallen away or who has been lead astray, but let us not be consumed with their short comings. Let us pray for them and get back to the work of God at hand.

Now in our text, we have Peter concerned about two different things which is none of his business. First he ask who it was that betrayed Christ, and then he wanted to know what was John going to do.  Now on the surface these two question seemed harmless enough. But remember Jesus had left Peter with the instructions to feed his sheep, and this should have occupied all of Peter's energy. He didn't ask how he should go about feeding the sheep instead he was concerned about stuff that had nothing to do with him. We've all been given a task to do which should occupy our every thought and concern. We should be focused on how to lead lost souls to Christ, how to let our lights so shine before men as the lost might seek the Lord Jesus. But like Peter many of us are to busy worrying about what others are doing and thus leaving our work undone.

With all that has taken place in the world over the past few months, many have lost focus of the instructions left to us by our Lord. Instead of worrying about same sex marriage, a man becoming a woman, or what big name preacher is fallen into sin, let us go out and tell every creature the good news of salvation. If we do this everything else will fall in place.

Hold On

2 Chronicles 20:17 " ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.


We fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, but the good news is the battle is not ours it is the Lords. God is absolutely always in control, all he wants from us is a willing vessel. A vessel He can use to do His will and bring Him glory. He tells us we shall not fight the battle, but just to prepare ourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

Here in our story Judah was about to be attacked by three enemies, and the king was told fear not that for the battle was not theirs it was the Lords. They were to go, be prepared but stand still and let the Lord fight the battle. Today we are under constant attack by three enemies, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These are the same three which Satan used to tempt Eve in the garden, Jesus in the wilderness and what he tries to trip us up with today. But we have a keeper, for Jesus said He has power over all flesh, he rose with all power in His hands. We to must be prepared, for the attack, but stand still and let the Lord fight our battle. Let Him work through us as we deny our self in total surrender to His spirit and stand still in His promise that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

Jesus said to cast all of our cares upon Him for He cares for us. Jesus wants us to call upon Him in our day of trouble that He might deliver us. He called us and choose us for this life, He knows all that will come up against us, He just wants us to trust that He will do just what He said. After all the battle is not our it is the Lords and He is faithful and just, so just hold your peace and know that God be with you, so who can be against you.....

The Hope Of Salvation

Zechariah 10:6 "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; For I have mercy upon them:and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them".

Hope can come to sinners: God says "I have mercy upon them". Mercy abides in the heart of God even after the hope of it has left the heart of man. God's mercy is coming, and it has come to all who will accept it."Behold he prayeth" is the sure indication of coming deliverance (acts.9:11). God has observed prayer in them, for he said,"I will hear them". The result of mercy coming is exceedingly delightful: "They shall be as though I had not cast them off". This promise may be applied to all penitent sinners, and the wayward backsliders. God's mercy in many ways restores men to their lost positions, and in some cases to the pristine condition they had before the fall.

Let us look at the power of God's mercy; the forgiveness of sin, and justification by faith, makes us acceptable in God's sight.The renovation of our nature, by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, creates a man of righteousness, turning a sinner to a child of God. We are restored to paradise, as we dwell in God's blessed state, God's mercy destroys sin but it saves the sinner. We have redemption from the curse, the curse is gone from us, taken by Him who was made a curse for us, removing the anger of God from us forever.We are employed in God service, a living testimony to the redeeming mercy of God. We have communion with our Savior and have the promise of eternal life, all in His mercy.

Only return to God and live in His reverence, and you shall enjoy all the blessedness of your best spiritual state. You will again enjoy the complete removal of guilt, and have no more consciousness of sin, but have rest for your soul. A renewed Joy, restored purity of heart, fresh communion with your Father; A new usefulness, teaching transgressors the forgiving ways of God. Restoration to the church, not just part of the congregation, but an actual belonging to the church of the living God, you shall strive to avoid all temptations, as you stand more firmly in the grace of our Lord. So at once confess your sin, and humbly plead the Lord, for His mercy. Cry out in prayer, for He will hear you. hold on by faith in the name of Jesus,to the promise,"they shall be as though I had not cast them off". By the mercy of God, I beseech all who have not made Jesus your choice, turn back to God, there is hope.

A Way Of Life

Matthew 5:20 "For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven".


Many have been deceived into believing that attending church is enough. We must be careful not to feel like we are doing God a favor by coming to church for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. We must remember if going to church was all it took Satan himself would be heaven bound, for we know he too comes into the church house.

Here in this fifth chapter of  Matthew we have Jesus giving the famous sermon on the mount. Now through a series of scriptures Jesus teaches us on what it means to truly be Christ like. He covers in detail the behavior we as Christian are suppose to put on display that a lost world might see in us the love of God. We are to let our light so shine that the world sees our good work and glorifies our Father in heaven. This walk we are on is an inward thing not an outward show.

The Scribes and Pharisees looked like people of God as the wore their long white robes and entered the synagogue's like they were so important. They said all the right things but the heart was in the wrong place. We must be careful not to just look like we are a child of God, but we must also live like a child of God. It's not just a Sunday morning thing.

Power Source

Psalm 37:39 "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble".

Salvation is a big deal and describes the whole life of the true believer. They feel the need of being saved from self, sin, Satan and the world. They trust in God for preservation, and the end there of is eternal rest and peace in the bosom of the Father. The prosperous sinner is on another track, and comes to another conclusion: He disowns all need of salvation, and considers his success to be of his own winning. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off. God is not with the unrighteous; they have neither safety, nor strength, nor salvation in their time of trouble.

The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, he is in the planning of it; the providing of it; the beginning of it; the carrying on of it, and the completion of it. The believer realizes that it is not about anything he has done, but purely out of the love of God. The inward conflicts of the believer makes him know that God alone must work salvation, for we are not able to save ourselves. The outward temptations drive us to the fact that only God can keep us. The world's hate teaches us that greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. Our daily trials would crush and destroy us if it wasn't for the strength of the Lord, made perfect in our weakness. This truth that unto the Lord belongs the salvation of His saints, leads us to trust in him; excites us into believing prayer to him, and a total dependency upon Him.

All eyes turn on Jesus with looks of love; gratitude glows in every bosom, and swells in every song; now with golden harps they sound his praise; and now descending from their thrones to do him homage, they cast their crowns in one glittering heap at the feet which were nailed on Calvary. Here we learn in whose name to seek salvation, and through whose merits to hope for it; for salvation of the righteous belongs to the Lord Jesus, to him be the glory

Fear Not

Isaiah 41:10 "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am God: I will strengthen thee; I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

God's promise to never leave or forsake us, is perhaps the best of all promises. In spite of our rebellious hearts toward God, with love he still tells us "I have chosen you and have not rejected you". Did we earn this love? Deserve it?, ask for it? No. God is committed totally to his children, even though our walk with him is inconsistent and shaky. What would we do without God?  We could try and take Solis relationships of all kinds. Rather we chase careers, money, material goods, sex, substance abuse and even religion, they offer us no real peace and certain tee. But the only one true God. He says " fear thou not, for I am with you. We have nothing to fear, for he offers his presence to support us in life, for he is with us, the Lord is our shepherd, He provides for us, He is our provision, our hope, our guide, our direction and his two wonderful sheep dogs goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life.

 With Gods presence in our life we are never at a loss. He is God, so let us be grateful to him, and thankful for him, in our worship and praise to him. Not just  with an empty shouts of joy, or with empty ritualistic hand praise, but by living a life before men, worthy of the name we bear. We are children of the most high God, He is our strength, so let us walk like it; He is our ever present help, so let us talk like it; and he upholds us with the right hand of his righteousness! so let us  live like it. Jesus the Christ, the righteous right hand of God, that hold up all who believes. Live victoriously in Christ..............

Don't Let Him Ride

Job1:6 "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord,and Satan came also among them".

Every time we come together to present ourselves before the Lord, Satan has a tendency to be among us. But clearly this cannot be acceptable worship,for nothing that satan does can be accepted.We must come to God by faith,or our worship is dead and unprofitable.We must learn to walk in the spirit putting to death the flesh and the lust thereof so that when we come to present ourselves to the Lord Satan is not among us.He come but to still the word, kill the spirit and destroy the soul of all he comes in contact with.He brings mischief to the sons of God by accusing them before the Lord night and day; by causing them to take their thoughts off the heavenly and they begin to worry about earthly concerns Jesus has already overcome.He causes division in the body by sowing dissensions and the people criticize one another, instead of hearing the gospel message.He causes preachers,teachers, choir singers and even a good praying deacon to become filled with pride and seek glory that belongs to God alone.He tries to quince the spirit , silence the prayer and even chill the praise of the worship service.

He distracts the unsaved from hearing the message that might lead them to Christ,by raising doubts, putting the man before the master.He may cause them to delay giving there life to Christ,showing them all that is wrong so the enjoyment felt is now hindered, as he takes away the word sown to the heart like a bird eating up newly planted seed.You cannot destroy a hornets nest without being attacked in return. Since we know Satan will enter our assemblies,we must make sure we are not the one he is riding with, and we don't give him a place to sit when he enters the congregation.

We must continue to present ourselves to the Lord, even though we know many who confess a false profession will be in attendance.But let us do a great soul searching and ask ourselves daily "Lord is it I",so that we are not the ones with the false profession. We must be more watchful as we pray, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,that we give not into the temptations of the flesh.Our preachers and teachers must be more faithful to the gospel truth,that the devil will not find comfort in the congregation, but will be annoyed by the truth which he hates.We must allow the truth of God's word to convict  the heart,then it will convert the soul and bring about true confessions from the mouth.(You cannot confess to something you are not guilty of.).Let us strive for the perfect assembly above where there be no mixture, but a sinless congregation.

A New Way Of Walking

Romans 6:4 "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life".

"The way of God" can be described as a way to live. A life separated them from those of the world. It is called the way because it is living the way Christ lived. It is following his example, and obeying His instructions. The way was then, and still is, a way of living and thinking that is different from that followed by those of this world.

This focus on unselfishness rather than the self-serving approach produced by our natural way of thinking, brings about a dramatic change in the way we live and everything we do. God ask that we reorder our priorities,allowing his spirit to change our thinking, serving God by doing his will and seeking his kingdom. When we put God first ,he promises to provide ways for us to meet our needs. He will with hold no good thing from us.Living a godly life is much more than merely calling on God's name as though that alone will excuse us for doing whatever we please. Living a godly life is doing what pleases God. It is practicing what he commands, and living a way of life defined by his word. Jesus taught a way of life based on observing God's commandments from a heart of love that willingly makes personal sacrifices for the sake of others, focusing on giving rather than receiving. A true Christian cannot base his way of life, his new way of living on his own ideas about right and wrong.

 God's law and Christ example of perfect obedience to those laws, set the standards for the genuine Christian way of Life. Our new life is based on giving, a free gift given by God to all who will receive it." For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son",Giving is the way of God and the foundation of His love to mankind. Let us use this same foundation as we give to a lost world that which God gave to us, His only begotten Son.

Deceived

Judges 16:6 " And Delilah said to Samson,Tell me,I pray thee,wherein thy great strength lieth,and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee."

The enemy comes not but to steal, kill and destroy.We must realize that there is nothing good in the enemy.He is a liar and the father of them.Yet many of us get caught daily in the web that he has woven, to capture and destroy that which God has created.The enemy is not going to be in a red suit with horns on his head,often times he will look just like that we are seeking in through the lust of the flesh,the lust of our eyes and the pride of life.

In our story today the enemy came in the image of a beautiful woman.There si a reason God tells us be not unequally yoked.See Delilah was a deceiver. She pretended to be one thing in order to destroy that which God had created.See much like Eve in the garden,Delilah was pleasant to look at in Samson eye, and it was the lust of his eye, that lead to the lust of his flesh, which caused him to tell Delilah the secret of his heart.It is the deception of the enemy which causes us to surrender to him our hearts and hinder our relationship with God.Samson kept toying with her when he should have left her presence.Many of us are playing footsie with the enemy when we should leave him alone.

Satan is real,and as we see in our story after Delilah deceived Samson, she went on to destroy his life. He had to repent and return to God.Satan has deceived many and went on to destroy their lives.the only way back is to repent and turn back to God to be saved.

Stand

Job 1:11" But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face".


Do you truly love the Lord or is it the things He has given you, or the person you believe you are in Him that you love. Do you love Him just because of who He is or is it because of what you have? Now this is not a judgment on ones salvation, but just a question of self examination of ones motives for our worship of God. Can we honestly look at our lives and answer truthfully the reason for our worship and praise.

Now I don't expect anyone to say anything other than it is God we love, but if we look at the things that we place importance on, we might question why we truly worship the Lord. When we look closer at our life we might see we will marry a person with a good job and no relationship with God, before one with a good relationship with God and no job. We tend to push our kids to get a secular education but  the attending Sunday school and bible study is optional. We go to work on time, but come to church when we feel like it. We do things in front of God that we would never do in front of our employer, and we go out of our way to please our spouse, but make no sacrifices when it comes to living a life pleasing to God. When we take a closer look at our life we will see that lean more on His love for us, than we do our love for Him.

Here in our text Satan questions the motive behind Job's worship of the Lord. He tells God that if he is allowed to take all that Job has , Job will curse God to His face. If Satan made the same statement to God about you would he be right. If everything you have was removed what would we see? would there be a heart desiring a  relationship with the Lord, or a  heart with a desire for the things of this world. Would you bless God with a life pleasing to Him or would you curse Him and die?

Trust In The Blesser Not The Blessing

Philippians 4:12 " I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need".


We often think of the unique challenges and opportunities we face when we lack or stand in need. In those situations we are faced with the choice of trusting God for provision, or grumbling as the  children of Israel did in the wilderness. But we often over look the pitfalls that can lie in prosperity. There are some hidden dangers that await us when prosperity becomes the desire of our hearts.Our hearts can become so attached to things neglect God.  It is this very danger that Jesus warned of when he said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

We think that Satan is most dangerous when we are in need, but he is just as dangerous (if not more) when we stand in abundance. We tend to let our guards down when we stand in abundance. Suffering tends to sharpen our spiritual senses, driving us to realize our need and dependence on God. But when things are going well it becomes easy to put our lives on cruise control and start to doze off at the wheel. But prosperity does not change the fact that our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. We also can begin to put our trust in the blessings and forgo the one who has blessed us, and think  that our prosperity is the result of our godliness. Abundance can sometimes make it hard  for us to place our trust in God, because of the false since of security that lies in their prosperity. God does tend to bring blessing to those who are obedient, but even in those cases it is a gift of his grace since the very obedience in view is a product of God’s own work in that person’s life.

In our text here, Paul claims he has learned the secret of contentment in either lack or abundance. That secret is knowing that our security rests not in our current financial situation but in the one who loved us and gave himself for us. No matter what your economic situation is today, whether  rosy or bleak, God wants us to find our security in him. Beware the dangers of both being in need and of having abundance.